making @ koskela

Yep, I'm a maker. There is nothing like the feeling of crafting a creation out of your own two hands, even if it's just a simple card for a loved one. When I was younger, I can remember making personalised singlets and undies for girlfriends, colourful artworks for my bedroom and a thousand and one beaded necklaces. For our engagement party last year, I insisted on DIY lanterns made from recycled tin cans, with thousands of tiny holes hammered into them in different patterns. The more time-consuming projects like granny blankets are even more rewarding, and I love  the process of making 'a little bit each day'. 

For something a bit different (and because we heart Koskela), my girlfriend Fiona and I attended a class at the Koskela Workshop on the weekend, where we learnt a new creative skill. And with  recycled plastic bags and wool sprawled out in front of us, we started to make a basket.  

The super talented artist Michele Morcos so generously took us through her basket weaving process, with friendliness, clear instructions, repeated demonstrations, honest advice and lots of genuine encouragement. Her beautiful baskets sat as pieces of art in front of us, with such intricate detail only achieved through  hours and hours (and weeks and weeks) of dedicated weaving. 

Sitting, making and chatting among a mixture of ladies of all ages was so lovely on this Saturday morning, especially in the colourful and inspiring surrounds of the Koskela Workshop.

A trip to Koskela isn't complete without an excited wander around  the warehouse, oohing and ahhing at the gorgeous furniture, artworks, books, homewares and the colourful collection of other delightful bits and pieces. 

While we didn't join the queue for lunch at Kitchen By Mike, I have been lucky enough to try those canteen-style plates of deliciousness before and highly recommend indulging in the whole Koskela experience - it's a treat! 

We finished off our morning appropriately admiring the HUGE woven light pendants and baskets made by the Tjanpi Desert Weavers.

I'm now in the process of making my first ever woven basket, 'a little bit each day'. It's an exciting project, and I'm in no rush to finish. I love the 'no knots' rule and the idea of weaving in found objects to create a story. I started with a recycled Lebanese bread bag, and then moved onto raffia. I'm keen to dig through my wardrobe for a once-loved pretty pattern, and weave that in too. 

greek semolina cake

simple, sweet, sticky & delicious!

ingredients for the cake mix.
5 large eggs
225ml greek yoghurt
225g caster sugar
75g ground almonds
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange
150g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
200g semolina level teaspoons baking powder
200ml mild olive oil

ingredients for the sweet & sticky topping.
150g shelled pistachios, slightly toasted
150ml good quality runny honey
big dollops of greek yoghurt

method.
preheat the oven to 180 degrees . mix all of your sponge ingredients in a large bowl . EASY! grease a 22x29cm cake tin with a little olive oil, then dust over a sprinkling of flour, and shake the tin about . spoon in the sponge mixture, and use a spatula to spread it all evenly . put the cake into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden and cooked through . stick a skewer in the centre to check . put aside to cool for about half an hour . when you just about ready to serve, add the honey and pistashios to a saucepan and give everything a good stir . squeeze all the juice from the orange and lemon you zested earlier into the pan. boil for 1-2 minutes, or until nice and syrupy . stab the cake all over with a small knife to create holes for the syrup to sink into, then pour the syrup all over the top . spread it out . you want it to be fairly even so the honey gets sucked right into the cake . slice and serve with a dollop of the greek yoghurt .

this cake looks & tastes so homemade - & is even better the next day once all the lovely honey has soaked in further!

recipe from Jamie.

ALSO : check out Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day - saturday 19 may 2012!

paella

If you love a good risotto to warm up your tastebuds then this spanish paella is definitely worth a try! One pot, stacks of spanish flavour. Serves 6.

ingredients.

1.5 litres chicken stock
2 cups aborio rice
2 onions
3 cloves garlic
2 small red chillis
2 tablespoons tomato paste
6 ripe tomatoes, diced
1 cup dry white wine
3 chorizos, sliced
15 raw green prawns
4 chicken tenderloins, chopped into bite size pieces
pinch of saffron threads (expensive but really makes a difference!)
bunch of roughly chopped parsley
squeeze of lemon juice
lemon wedges to serve

method.
heat stock in a saucepan over a low heat . add the chorizo into a hot paella pan or cast iron pot and cook until crispy . remove chorizo from pot but leave oil (this has amazing flavour). add onion, garlic, chilli and chicken and cook until brown . add chorizo back into pot and stir in tomatoes, white wine, tomato paste and saffron . cook for 3 minutes . add 1 cup of stock and reduce and repeat as per a risotto . stir continuously . once all stock has been added and rice is cooked through, the consistency should be more soupy than a risotto . add more stock if necessary . turn off heat . stir in prawns, parsley and a good squeeze of lemon juice . let sit for 2 minutes or until prawns are cooked through . serve with lemon wedges .

Will have to make this again with a big jug of sangria!

lamb tagine

this is my absolute favourite tagine recipe! i love the way the apricots and raisins add sweetness to the spice :) super easy, smells amazing and don't expect any leftovers!

ingredients.
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon allspice
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
grated rind and juice of 2 lemons
1.2kg diced lamb (i buy a leg and cut it up myself)
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup raisins
4 carrots
4 potatoes
1 cup thick, Greek-style yoghurt
1/2 cup pistachio kernels, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cup couscous (soaked in 1 1/2 cups water for 5 mins)
bunch of corriander

method.
combine spices and salt in a large bowl . add oil, lemon rind and half the lemon juice and stir to form a paste . add lamb and stir until well-coated . cover and refrigerate for 3 hours . cut carrots and potatoes into chuncks and line bottom of tagine or casserole dish . place lamb mixture ontop of veges . add  1 cup stock and remaining lemon juice . stir until well-combined . cover and cook for 1 hour on stovetop over medium heat . stir in dried apricots and raisins. cook, covered for a further 40 minutes or until lamb is tender . serve immediately with couscous, a dollop of greek yoghurt, sprinkling of pistachio kernels and corriander.

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a granny square a day

The small world trapped in a single train carriage can be a very fascinating, and even entertaining thing to observe.

You have the sleepers; the ones who run for a window seat so that they can rest their heads on the glass, not at all bothered by the oily imprint left over from the last person’s forehead; the ones who slowly give in to their heavy drooping heads, only to be startled and sit up suddenly acting like they weren’t falling asleep at all. Then there are the newspaper readers, who need to know the art of origami to be able to fold the paper in a way in which it doesn’t disturb the person sitting next to them. There are the snorers; which range from the tolerable snifflers and whistlers, to the huge beastly roarers that forcefully inhabit innocent eardrums. The make-up appliers who mechanically construct each layer on their face, a practised skill that involves careful timing, especially with the mascara. The music listeners; avoiding the evil stares from people around them who are forced to listen to their second-hand muffled beats. The iPhone addicts, flicking through their apps like prized possessions; their colourful screens dazzle them while they warm up their fingers for a busy screen-tapping day ahead. The iPad owners know they are the cool kids. They pull out their gadget with a ‘na na, mine’s bigger’. Now, with the loud conversationalists we have; the mothers groups chatting about their lazy husbands, the school kids gossiping, the awkward catch up conversations between two people that haven’t seen each other in a while, and the worst; phone conversationalists who purposefully speak loud enough so that the 50 or so strangers around them are forced to listen to their one side of a conversation. There are the work-a-holics, who pull out their laptops in an attempt to get some work done. The couples, which use the trip as an opportunity to catch up on some canoodling, perhaps even a spot of grooming. Then we come to novel readers, who usually keep pretty still and well, normal, apart from the odd women so engaged in her romance novel that she gently strokes her skin with her bookmark. There’s the hair twirlers, the Manga movie watchers, the nose pickers, the nail clippers!

If you sit at the back of the train, you can see a sea of bobble heads moving around in unison to the rhythm to the train’s movements. Like a Mexican Wave, it’s mesmerising. There will be times when a train carriage is completely silent, other times there will be a cocktail of conversations and laughter. It is interesting to think about a whole second set of train commuters either upstairs or downstairs; is their train carriage culture the same or different? A heated carriage in winter has a certain sense of cosiness to it, where as a non-air conditioned carriage in summer is a swarm of frustration and sweat.If you’re on your own, a train ride is the most unsociable thing you could possibly do given your very close proximity to 50 or so other people. It is common train carriage courtesy not to touch the person next to you, let alone speak to them – they are strangers.

I am definitely not a make-up applier or a snorer, but there was a stage when I did find myself shifting between a couple of tedious routines, from dozing off to sleep only to wake up suddenly realising I had my mouth wide open, to Facebooking! I hated it; but what else was there to do? It was there on my phone and I was sitting on a train for an hour and twenty minutes. I knew that it was getting to the point of ridiculousness when it wasn’t merely enough for me to log in once, I needed to check my phone constantly to be updated on people’s early morning statuses. Reading about people who I didn’t even know stuck in traffic or hating on Mondays was not a very exciting start to my morning. But I was addicted and I had to make a change. 

A year ago I went out and bought a crochet needle and six fresh balls of brightly coloured wool. I assumed that old people knew how to do these domestic past time things, so I went to visit my Nan. A dedicated knitter (not crotchetier, and yes, they are two completely different things she tells me), she was puzzled as to why I wanted to learn. I told her that it was cool, or rather, that I was going to make it cool. She didn’t believe me. Back in her day, she knitted because she couldn’t afford to buy warm clothes; it was a necessity. It really didn’t have anything to do with fitting in. These days, not fitting in can be more rewarding than fitting in! My oh my, how the times have changed. Here I was, prepared to learn how to crochet for no particular reason other that I had an urge to learn something new.

As a typical 24 year old, it is in my genetic make-up that if I need to find out something, I Google it. I typed in ‘learn how to crochet’ and was surprisingly presented with an abundance of YouTube video clips, all containing a pair of warm, gentle, well experienced hands, slowly taking me through the steps. Surprisingly, I picked it up really quickly. I was proud of myself; I could actually see something being formed in the palms of my hands. So, I decided to make a colourful Granny Square, which would ultimately be sewn together with other Granny Squares to make a blanket. My fingers agreed, and rhythmically fell into a pace. As soon as I had the knack of it, I realised what I had accomplished – I had learnt something new.

It is addictive. As soon as I finish one square, I want to make a new one. The sense of accomplishment after completing each square is warming and contenting. Choosing the patterns is exciting. It’s the feel of the wool, the brightness of the colours, the pattern running over and over in my head; treble stitch, chain stitch, treble stitch, chain stitch. It’s the way my mind is freed. I can actually physically do something and think about a whole lot of other things at the same time. My hands are busy, and I don’t have the need to reach for my phone. It’s two hours and 20 minutes out of my day that I have reclaimed as my own. There is something about physically making something that is so much more rewarding than getting a high score on Angry Birds. Making is the new buying; it’s in fashion, it's ... cool!

So if you ever decide to dedicate a morning train ride to the observation of train carriage culture, I’ll be the young lady sitting with my colourful wool, treble stitching away, a Granny Square a day.

If you would like to learn how to crochet, or even better - get on board the Granny a Day bandwagon, visit the beautiful blog Meet Me At Mikes for extremely helpful and motivating Granny Square Tutorials.